Adblock Plus finally comes to Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer now has a version of Adblock Plus to call its own, as developer Wladimir Palant has finally made enough progress to share unstable builds with early adopters.

More than half a decade ago, Palant said that Adblock Plus for IE wasn’t even an option. None of the code from Adblock Plus from Firefox could be borrowed, and IE wasn’t exactly built with easy extensibility at its core.

Part of the problem with delivering a workable ABP was that its JavaScript engine isn’t quite up to par with those in Firefox and Chrome. How did Palant pull it off, then? He shipped Chrome’s V8 engine inside the 2-meg download to give IE the extra muscle it needed to run the Adblock libraries.

Clearly, Palant likes a challenge. The new IE add-on is compatible with versions all the way back to IE6 — in the unfortunate event that you’re still using that piece of trash.

Even if you’re using a much more recent version of Internet Explorer — hopefully IE9 or IE10 — ABP offers functionality that IE’s built-in tracking protection and InPrivate filtering don’t. As it does in other browsers, Adblock Plus for IE will help you conserve bandwidth and help protect your privacy while you surf.

Palant has posted downloads for both both 32- and 64-bit Windows. It’s important to note that Adblock can’t run in the Modern IE launched from the Windows 8 Start Screen or on Windows RT.

You’ll also need to set the IE status bar to visible to see the ABP icon and access its configuration screen. To do that, just right click some blank space in the top toolbar and check it off.